Mare Island has many claims to fame, starting with its 1854 establishment as the first permanent Navy base on the West Coast. Not so well known is another first – the 1868 construction of a one-story brick building that marked the start of the Navy’s land-based prison system.

The prison shut down 78 years later, in 1946 following World War II, after expanding from a small lock-up to a facility large enough to house about 650 inmates. Other prisons were built later by the Navy, but didn’t last as long. Next in length of service was the Navy prison in Portsmouth, N.H., which closed in 1973 after 61 years.

Navy prisons were needed following an 1850 congressional ban on flogging sailors with a “cat o’ nine tails.” Following the ban, the Navy tried alternative punishments ranging from loss of pay or rank to confinement in ship brigs, in irons and subsisting on bread and water. But there was a clear need for a formal prison system, and that system was pioneered on Mare Island.

The Mare Island prison still stands, just north of the old Marine barracks on Flagship Drive on the west side of the shipyard. Visible from the street is a 1901 brick structure, designated Building No. 84; a large concrete wing built on its south side in 1908; and a small 1902 wing on the north side. Another large addition, built in 1938, is at the rear of “Old 84,” as it was known throughout the Navy.

A contract for the first prison was awarded in early August 1868, and the work was described as “about completed” in a Dec. 12, 1868, Vallejo Evening Chronicle article. A second-story addition was built in the early 1890s, followed by the 1901 brick addition and later expansions.

After closure of Mare Island Naval Shipyard in 1996, Lennar Mare Island became the island’s main developer. Lennar had discussed plans to demolish the entire prison due to PCB contamination, but that could change now. The Nimitz Group, a new developer that has shown a deep interest in Mare Island history, has major plans for the north end of the island, and also may acquire Lennar property in the center of the island. That would include the “Old 84” site.

Options other than total demolition include removal of newer additions and restoration of the 1901 brick addition, with its Greek Revival architectural features. At the rear of the 1901 structure, what’s left of the original prison, as expanded in 1892, also could be preserved. A 2016 Lennar consultant’s report says the 1868 prison was “almost certainly” demolished in 1892, but that doesn’t match up with two high-level Navy reports and several Vallejo and San Francisco newspaper stories in the 1890s that I found in researching “Old 84.” All those reports and stories describe expansion of the 1868 building. There is no mention of its destruction.

Advocates of partial restoration include retired Navy Capt. Rodney Watterson, author of “Whips to Walls,” a 2014 book that describes the Navy’s efforts to revamp its discipline system following the 1850 ban on flogging. Watterson says total demolition of “Old 84” would result in “the permanent loss of an important relic of naval history.”

“Old 84” had a reputation as one of the toughest federal prisons. Sailors and Marines who served time there included convicted deserters, mutineers, men who plotted to rob and kill superior officers – and others who just made stupid mistakes.

A series of 1912 stories in the Los Angeles Herald and San Francisco Call told of the adventures of a Navy deserter, Jack R. Mosby, who wound up in the Mare Island prison after serving as a general in a Mexican rebel army. Mosby claimed to have served under different flags in Africa, Cuba, South America, the Philippines and China. He said he deserted because of the boredom of U.S. Navy service “in times of peace. It got on my nerves.”

USS California sailor George Boyog began a 15-year prison term on Mare Island in 1935 following a bold attempt to steal the ship’s payroll while at sea. The so-called “battleship bandit” had planned for months to force the disbursing officer to open the ship’s safe, take thousands of dollars in cash, and then kill the officer and throw his body overboard. But the officer fought back and Boyog, armed with a revolver, knife and bayonet, was overpowered.

An 1897 news story told of a USS Philadelphia sailor named Patrick Mullen who was sentenced to 12 to 18 months in the prison after losing his temper when a Marine stepped on a deck he had just painted. Mullen swore at the Marine, doused him with a bucket of water, and then went ashore without leave, staying drunk for two days.

A search of old newspaper files turned up many accounts of escape attempts, including a Nov. 23, 1893, San Francisco Call report about three inmates who cut through bars in the prison tower, where they had been doing some clean-up work. They used hammock ropes to lower themselves about 40 feet to the ground, swam to Vallejo, hopped a freight train to San Francisco and stowed away on a steamer bound for Canada.

In 1920, six prison inmates seized rifles and ammunition and escaped after overpowering and kidnapping Marine guards. A Sept. 6, 1920, Sacramento Union account stated that the escapees were recaptured 20 miles away in Cordelia after a gunfight with 25 Marines who were pursuing them. Two of the Marines were wounded.

Stories about escape attempts continued up to World War II. In mid-1943, a sailor on an outside work crew fled after seizing a guard’s submachine gun. He was caught nearly two months later working on a ranch in Nevada. The same man escaped again the following December, fleeing with another inmate in a stolen Navy ambulance. They were caught a week later in Utah.

A 1945 Mare Island Grapevine story told how two prisoners working in a wood yard outside the prison changed into civilian clothes they found in a wash room and then headed for Sears Point Road. Authorities caught up with them before they got off the island.

The prison news wasn’t only about inmates. A Sept. 10, 1911, story in the Sacramento Union recounted the bizarre tale of Capt. Arthur Matthews, the Marine warden of the prison, who committed suicide in Florida several months after embezzling about $3,100 in prison funds. While on the run, the warden, son of a Navy rear admiral, wrote to his brother telling how he crossed into Mexico and joined up with Mexican revolutionaries before deciding to go to Florida.

— Vallejo and other Solano County communities are treasure troves of early-day California history. The “Solano Chronicles” column, running every other Sunday, highlights various aspects of that history. My source references are available upon request. If you have local stories or photos to share, email me at genoans@hotmail.com. You can also send any material care of the Times-Herald, 420 Virginia St.; or the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum, 734 Marin St., Vallejo 94590.